Elevated flooring



Feb. 4, 1969 v. G..HAROLDSON 3,425,179

ELEVATED FLOORING Filed Feb. 15, 1967 INV ENTOR VICTOR G. HAROLPSON gala/4 Feb. 4, 1969' v. G. HAROLDSON 3,425,179

ELEVATED FLOORING Filed Feb. 15, 1967 INVENTOR VI CIOR e. HAROLDSON 42; A NEY United States Patent 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to elevated flooring, and more particularly to an improved pedestal and girder arrangement for supporting floor panels wherein each panel is supported by a set of pedestals and girders.

Heretofore, a number of floor panels have been supported on relatively long beams or stringers which in turn were mounted on pedestals to elevate the floor panels. Once such flooring was assembled, it was difiicult to open up the flooring to provide a trench of considerable length because of the unremovable stringers. As a consequence, cables, wires and ducts could not be laid under the flooring but had to be fished under numerous unremovable stringers.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an elevated flooring arrangement which overcomes the foregoing difficulties.

Another object is to provide such an arrangement which enables the flooring to be opened up so that under floor facilities can be readily laid into place.

Another object is to provide such an arrangement which is composed of a number of parts which are interchangeable whereby assembly is simplified.

A further object is to provide such an arrangement composed of compact, relatively lightweight parts which are easy to handle.

Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious upon an understanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described, or will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention in practice.

In accordance with the present invention, the foregoing objects are generally acom-plished by providing elevated flooring comprising the combination of a group of at least four rectangularly arranged pedestals each having a head member at the upper end thereof provided with four rectangularly arranged recessed shelf portions each formed with an opening facing outwardly and upwardly; at least four girders, one for each two adjacent pedestals, each girder having a formation at each end thereof fitting into a shelf portion and being supported thereby; and a rectangular floor panel having four edge zones each of which is supported by one of the girders.

A preferred embodiment of the invention has been chosen for the purpose of illustration and description, and is shown in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the specifications, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the girder and arrangement.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary prespectivc view of a pedestal having four girders mounted thereon with a floor panel supported on girders.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary elevational view partly in section illustrating the manner in which the griders are connected to the pedestals.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary elevation View of the flooring adjacent to a vertical wall.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, an elevated flooring arrangement is shown which generally comprises pedestal ICE pedestals 10, girders 11 mounted on the pedestals, and

floor panels 12 supported by the girders.

As shown in FIG 1, four pedestals 10 are rectangularly arranged to mount four rectangularly arranged girders 11 thereon. In setting up the elevated flooring, a sufficient number of pedestals and girders are interconnected in a similar manner so that each floor panel 12 is supported by four girders. In FIG. 2, one corner of a fioor panel is shown. The other three corners of this floor panel and all the corners of the other floor panels are supported in an identical manner.

The pedestals 10 each have a head member 14 at the upper end thereof which may be adjusted in height by employing an arrangement 15 such as disclosed in my co-pending application Ser. No. 561,583, filed June 29, 1966; and each have a base 16 adapted to be secured to a floor.

The head members 14 are each provided with four rectangularly arranged recessed shelf portions 17 formed with an upwardly and outwardly facing opening.

The girders 11 each have a formation 18 at each end thereof fitting into a shelf portion 17.

In order to connect the girders to the pedestal head members, the shelf porions and formations are formed with a cooperating notch and projection arrangement 19 (FIG. 3).

The formations and the shelf portions can be rigidly secured by a bolt 20 extending downwardly through aligned apertures 21 and 22 in the formations and shelf portions, respectively, and a nut 24 threaded onto the bolt. The head 25 of the bolt 20 is disposed in a countersunk portion 26 in the formations so as not to interfere with the laying of the floor panel on the girders. The counter-sunk portion and the bolt head have matching non-circular configurations to prevent turning of the bolt when the nut is threaded thereon.

The girder formations 18 and head members 14 may have matching serrations 23 to provide a temporary looking arrangement before the bolts 20 are secured.

Lateral shifting of the floor panels 12 is prevented by providing each girder with a set of at least two projections 27 on the upper surface thereof located between the end formations and at the middle of the transverse dimension of the upper surface; and providing each floor panel with a corresponding recess 28 located at the lower end of the side edges thereof for receiving a portion of the projections 27. Preferably, the recesses and projections are adjacent the corners of the floor panels as shown in FIG. 2. When an adjacent floor panel is laid on the I other half of the upper surface of the girder, the recesses 28 formed therein receive the remainder half portion of the projections so as to align and cause adjacent side edges of two panels to abut and thereby eliminate a gap therebetween.

Alternatively, instead of utilizing the bolt and nut arrangement to secure the girders 11 to the head members 14, the girder formations 18 are provided with a pin 29 fitting snugly into an aperture 22 of the head members. These pins may be hollow so that they can be readily drilled out to provide the apertures 21 in the event the bolt and nut arrangement is desired.

In FIG. 4, a modified pedestal head 14 and base 16 are shown which enable the floor panels 12 to be brought up against a vertical wall.

Preferably, the floor panels 12 are square whereby all the girders have the same length and are interchangeable. In a practical embodiment of the present invention, the panels are twenty-four by twenty-four inches and the girders are twenty-three inches long and thus are readily handled. The pedestals and girders can be made of diecast aluminum and thus are extremely light in weight but yet sturdy and durable in construction.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that the present invention provides an improved elevated flooring arrangement which enables the flooring to 'be set up rapidly and allows the flooring to be opened up to make changes in repairs. A trench for laying wires, cable and the like is easily established 'by removing a row of floor panels and removing the girders transversely disposed to the path of the trench.

As various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and without sacrificing any of its advantages, it is to be understood that the matter here is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in any limiting sense.

I claim:

1. In elevated flooring, the combination of a group of at least four rectangularly arranged pedestals each having a rigid unitary head member at the upper end formed with rectangular arranged pockets each having a pair of side walls, an end wall and a bottom wall providing a shelf portion, said shelf portions each having an aperture extending therethrough and being formed with upwardly facing serrations; at least four beam-like girders, one for each two adjacent pedestals, each girder having a flat rectangular formation at each end thereof fitting completely into one of said pockets and being supported by its shelf portion; said formations each having an aperture extending therethrough located to be aligned with the aperture of its shelf portion and being formed with downward facing serrations cooperating with said serrations of its shelf portion to temporarily maintain the sets of shelf portion and formation apertures in alignment; a bolt extending through each set of said apertures and having a non-circular head concealed within a matching countersunk portion of said formation apertures; a nut threaded into each of said bolts to secure said girders to said heads; a rectangular floor panel having four edge zones each of which is supported by one of said girders; and cooperating means on said girders and said floor panel for preventing said floor panel from shifting laterally.

UNITED STATES PATENTS References Cited 2,575,213 11/1951 Farth 85-37 3,065,506 11/1962 Tremer 52l26 3,203,150 8/ 1965 Sterneblad 52-665 3,222,030 12/ 1965 Thorpe 52122 3,295,272 1/1967 Kanno 52l26 3,316,680 5/ 1967 Chrastek 52l26 3,318,057 5/ 1967 Norsworthy 52l26 FOREIGN PATENTF 1,388,095 12/1964 France.

HENRY C. SUTHERLAND, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

